HassanHafidh

(This article was originally published Sunday)

AMMAN (MarketWatch) -- Thirty-five international oil companies are qualified to bid for future oil and gas contracts to develop one of the world's largest oil fields, an Iraqi oil ministry statement said Sunday.

"The total number of the companies and consortia that participated in the pre-qualification process was 120 from various nationalities," the ministry's petroleum contracts and Licensing Office said.

The contracts office, however, said it would continue updating the process of qualifying companies "especially those that didn't pass (the qualification process) by updating their information with the view to allowing as many as possible of the IOCs to participate in the next licensing round."

The ministry announcement said that these companies "can participate in the coming licensing round for planned oil and gas fields which will be announced in due time."

Iraq is planning to issue the first round of tenders to develop some of its prized oil fields during the second quarter of this year, according to the country's oil minister Hussein al-Shahristani.

The ministry has excluded companies which have signed deals with the Kurdish semiautonomous rule from the ministry's list from taking part in Iraq's oil fields development.

Kurdish authorities have signed contracts, mostly production-sharing agreements, with around 20 international companies to develop oil and gas fields in their region. These deals have angered the federal oil ministry in Baghdad, which has declared them illegal and said foreign companies who signed these contracts would be blacklisted.

Iraq is currently tendering technical support agreements, or TSAs, that will help increase production in the country's largest oil fields by 500,000 barrels a day. Iraq is currently producing around 2.4 million barrels a day.

The ministry had asked international oil companies to register with the newly set up Contracts and Licensing Office of the Ministry early January and set Feb. 18 as the final day for receiving registration documentation. It said only qualified firms can bid for tenders to develop Iraq's vast oil reserves, the third-largest in the world.

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